Top 10 All-Time Best Fighters

Spring is here. The playoffs are in full effect, and for those of us that cheer for Canadian teams that means we have A LOT of free time at the moment. Rather than spend our time dwelling on the failures of our respective teams we figured we’d use this opportunity to remember days gone by. A time when men grew killer moustaches, smoked in-between periods and tried to murder each other with their fists.

Fighter, enforcer, goon, tough guy; they go by many names and come in many different shapes and sizes. These men are revered for their feats of strength, willingness to stand up for teammates and their fearlessness.

We’ve all had a favourite or two over the years. Whether it was Big Georges squaring off against the toughest the other team had to offer, then terrifying everyone in the first two rows as he jumped into the glass after scoring a goal. Or Tie Domi, the undersized heavyweight who stood toe to toe with some of the toughest of all time.

This is where you come in Nation; our friends over at Violent Gentlemen are teaming up with our other friends at HockeyFights.com to put together a line of T-shirts that celebrate the greatest pugilists to ever step foot on the ice. You may have already seen their homage to Luke Gazdic!

And they need your help whittling down a list of many to just a select few. Let us know in the comments who your favourite fighter of all-time is, we’ll collect the names and next week we’ll leave it up to the citizens of The Nation to vote on who you’d like to see on a brand new HF x VG shirt!

Great topic. My list depends on whether you’re talking the best enforcers — best at their job description — or most feared/toughest fighters. Some guys who aren’t as well known on that second list, but if you look them up you’ll see what I mean.

Dave Brown was something to behold. Huge reach on that guy, surprised anyone ever landed a punch on him.

The more we learn about head injuries though, the harder it is to forget about guys like Boogaard, Rypien, Probert, and Belak. I love guys that scrap on occasion when they need to (remember Sam Gagner fighting?), but the era of the enforcer is over….and that’s probably a good thing.

#1 with a bullet is Bob Probert. He was fear itself and could still play the game.

Ron Hextall didn’t fight as much as your typical enforcer, but when he did he was all-in. Really fun to watch him blow his top.

Also, I think Link Gaetz has to be included based purely on the fact that he was a fearless, borderline psychotic freaking maniac who kept playing after a car accident effectively ended his NHL career. He kept playing for over a decade in the beeriest of beer leagues because he liked to brawl. He’s a real life Hanson brother, and not the “Doo Wap” kind.